Amy Welborn is a contributor - five devotions per issue - to the Living Faith daily devotional .
Like many of you, I’m guessing, I have a love-hate relationship with modern technology. I am grateful for what it brings into my life but suspicious of its ultimate impact on my mind and spirit.
That said, the advances in translation apps, for example, are really life-changing, aren’t they? They make travel less stressful, as I can point my camera at a menu and be assured that I’m not accidentally ordering goat brains. I mean, when in Rome and all, but I have my limits.
Among all the genres of viral videos out there, one that I find most affecting is one I’d call “Children meeting their newborn siblings for the first time.”
From teens to toddlers, those moments are nothing but joy. Even small children break into happy tears when their tiny swaddled-up brother or sister is gently placed in their arms. What a mysterious, profound bond is family love!
Could it be that part of Jesus’ “love language” is to gently and persistently remind me to never rest comfortably in my own worldview? That God always has more to reveal to me, and that I always have more to learn?
In many of these shrines, small and large, there’s another image too. It’s a photograph. An old woman. A child. A young man in a uniform. A candle flickers nearby.
Don’t forget, they say. You walk by and ask for prayers. Don’t forget to pray for us too.
A friend is going through a terrible, world-shifting time. Life today looks completely different than it did even six months ago. She’s done what she could, but she really can’t do any more. It’s hard and sad. We do what we can to accompany those in difficult places. But it’s a challenge to offer words that don’t end up sounding like empty platitudes, isn’t it? Or even, if we’re going through our own hard times, reading words like the psalmist’s and believing them.
